Heat Finds Cracks In Wall

Defense Not Up To Usual Standards

May 24, 2006|By Michael Cunningham Staff Writer

Auburn Hills, Mich. — Maybe the Pistons can beat the Heat in shootouts, but it's certainly not what they are used to seeing at The Palace.

Maybe that's why there were scattered boos some of the many times the Heat scored so easily Tuesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final. Starting with the Heat's opening 11-0 burst, the Pistons often couldn't back up their reputation for suffocating defense in the 91-86 defeat.

The Heat shot 75 percent in the first quarter, 64 percent in the half. Then the Heat made 5 of its first 8 shots to open a 77-67 lead in the fourth quarter, when Detroit's defense traditionally has been stingiest.

It wasn't too surprising to see Heat center Shaquille O'Neal powering his way to points or Dwyane Wade slashing for his. But the Pistons also saw Gary Payton score on crafty moves to the basket, Jason Williams sprint for layups, Alonzo Mourning contribute on the block and assorted role players making 3-pointers.

Detroit point guard Chauncey Billups pretty much foreshadowed such a scenario. Before Game 1, Billups explained the difference between this Heat team and the one that fell in seven games to Detroit in the 2005 East finals.

"[Last year] they had Wade in [isolation] situations and threw the ball to [O'Neal], but they had so many guys that could space you out," he said. "Eddie Jones, Damon Jones, Rasual Butler -- with those guys spread out, they were deadly.

"This year they play off their two stars, but the supporting cast is a little bit more athletic. Maybe they don't shoot it as good as Eddie Jones and Damon Jones and Rasual Butler, but they look to beat you in different ways."

The only area that Billups was off was on the Heat's 3-point shooting. It turned out the Heat had success there, too, making 5 of 14.

NOT JUST THE TEMPO

The Pistons entered the series with questions about their offense, and coach Flip Saunders said not all of them could be explained away by Cleveland's decision to slow the pace in the last round.

"I think the concern of why our scoring was down [is we had] a lot of turnovers, not getting a lot of quality possessions, poor free-throw shooting," he said.

It looked bad early against the Heat on Tuesday. The Pistons missed their first six shots, a drought of 4:34, while falling behind 11-0. They finally got on track when Ben Wallace caught Richard Hamilton's alley-oop pass for a dunk. Detroit went on to score 25 points in the quarter.

Against Cleveland the Pistons scored 113 points in Game 1, 97 in Game 2 and then struggled to score the rest of the series.

STILL AILING

Saunders said Rasheed Wallace isn't near peak health after injuring his ankle May 15.

"I think right now he's probably about 75, 80 [percent]," Saunders said before Game 1.